The present invention relates generally to shellfish traps of the type intended to rest on the ocean floor to catch shellfish such as lobster, crab and shrimp.
Baited bottom traps to catch shellfish have long been employed by fisherman. In my U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,424 entitled "Selectable Entry Shellfish Trap", for example, a molded plastic trap is described, having an entrance passageway extending from the side wall to the center of the trap with an exit port at its inner end which can be cut out to the desired size according to the size of shellfish to be caught.
There are strict regulations regarding the size of shellfish which may be caught. This is to avoid capture of juvenile or immature shellfish which will lead to an excessive depletion in numbers. Thus, there are laws requiring that shellfish traps be provided with escape vents to allow the escape of shellfish under the legal size. These have the additional advantage that small unwanted creatures can escape from the trap, saving the fisherman time in sorting out the catch and discarding such unwanted or undersize creatures. Thus traps are sometimes provided with openings sufficiently large to permit the escape of small unwanted creatures or shellfish under the legal size. However, additional traps of smaller mesh size must then be purchased for trapping shrimp or similar small fish. Molded plastic traps have also been provided with suitable size escape vents or openings defined by rings built into the mesh, the openings being provided by cutting out the mesh by hand. This also requires purchase of different traps for each standard shellfish size. Also, laws requiring specific sizes, number and position of escape vents vary widely from state to state, so that different types of trap must be made available to conform with each set of requirements.